In my last post I talked about how experiencing two hurricanes within two weeks had spurred me to consider getting a ham radio license.

I watched as people in my home area of western North Carolina were trapped without a way to call for help or let loved ones know they were alive. Except for people with ham radios.

That gave me the sense of urgency I needed to study for an pass my exam for a Technician class license for amateur radio (ham).

In this post I'll outline how I went about it and provide links to resources for anyone interested.

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I've always had a bit of a prepper mindset, but never took much action towards really preparing for disasters.

The past few years have finally prodded me into some action.

First the pandemic convinced me to keep at least a small supply of essentials like food. I'm not preparing for the apocalypse, but I like to keep at least a week's worth of food on hand.

The past couple of weeks delivered a real one-two punch. Hurricanes Helene and Milton came through in a two week period.

Helene was a glancing blow to our area in central Florida, but it went on to utterly devastate my home region of Western North Carolina.

Milton was a direct hit on us here. When it passed our area, it was still a category 2 storm.

All of these events have prompted me to take action.

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